Advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) and automated driving systems are beginning to use a sensing system to monitor driver state when a vehicle is being driven autonomously or near autonomously (semi-autonomously). These systems need to monitor the driver to ensure that the driver state is appropriate for the driving mode. Examples include built-in steering and torque sensors to estimate driver input, steering wheel touch sensors to check for presence of a driver's hand on the steering wheel for lane keeping assistance and similar functions, and camera monitoring to ensure the driver state is sufficiently attentive for the hands-free driving condition, i.e., the driver is not sleeping or taking eyes off the road for more than a stipulated interval.
However, each one of these sensing systems has limitations when transitioning from automated driving to manual driving. If the transition was not the intent of the driver, then a safety hazard is created as the system would have relinquished control to a human who is not ready to take over. Consider an application where built-in steering system torque & position sensors are used to detect driver input as a signal to override autonomous control and transition to manual control. If in this situation something other than the driver's hands were the source of steering input (e.g., the driver's knee contacted the steering wheel), then the system could end up transitioning to manual driving contrary to the driver's intent, thus creating a hazard.